Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Israel at 60

1. Why I am a Zionist

gil troy , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 6, 2008

Today, too many friends and foes define Israel, and Zionism, bythe Arab world's hostility. Doing so misses Israel's everydaymiracles, the millions who live and learn, laugh and play, inthe Middle East's only functional democracy. Doing so ignoresthe achievements of Zionism, a gutsy, visionary movement whichrescued a shattered people by reuniting a scattered people.Doing so neglects the transformative potential of Zionism, whichcould inspire new generations of Israeli and Diaspora Jews tofind personal redemption by redeeming their old-new communalhomeland.

Tragically, Zionism is embattled. Arabs have demonized Zionismas the modern bogeyman, and many have clumped Zionists, alongwith Americans and most Westerners, as the Great Satans. InIsrael, trendy post-Zionists denigrate the state which showersthem with privilege, while in the Diaspora a few Jewishanti-Zionists loudly curry favor with the Jewish state'senemies.

Jews should reaffirm their faith in Zionism; the world shouldappreciate its many accomplishments. Zionists must not allowtheir enemies to define and slander the movement. No nationalismis pure, no movement is perfect, no state ideal. But todayZionism remains legitimate, inspiring, and relevant, to me andmost Jews. Zionism offers an identity anchor in a world ofdizzying choices - and a road map toward national renewal. Acentury ago, Zionism revived pride in the label "Jew"; today,Jews must revive pride in the label "Zionist."

I AM a Zionist because I am a Jew - and without recognizingJudaism's national component, I cannot explain its uniquecharacter. Judaism is a world religion bound to one homeland,shaping a people whose holy days revolve around the Israeliagricultural calendar, ritualize theological concepts, andrelive historic events. Only in Israel can a Jew fully live inJewish space and by Jewish time.

I am a Zionist because I share the past, present, and future ofmy people, the Jewish people. Our nerve endings are uniquelyintertwined. When one of us suffers, we share the pain; whenmany of us advance communal ideals together, we - and the world- benefit.

I am a Zionist because I know my history - and after beingexiled from their homeland more than 1900 years ago, thedefenseless, wandering Jews endured repeated persecutions fromboth Christians and Muslims - centuries before thisanti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust.

I am a Zionist because Jews never forgot their ties to theirhomeland, their love for Jerusalem. Even when they establishedautonomous self-governing structures in Babylonia, in Europe, inNorth Africa, these governments in exile yearned to return home.

I am a Zionist because those ideological ties nourished and werenurtured by the plucky minority of Jews who remained in the landof Israel, sustaining continued Jewish settlement throughout theexile.

I am a Zionist because in modern times the promise ofEmancipation and Enlightenment was a double-edged sword, oftenonly offering acceptance for Jews in Europe after theyassimilated, yet never fully respecting them if they didassimilate.

I am a Zionist because in establishing the sovereign state ofIsrael in 1948, the Jews reconstituted in modern Western terms arelationship with a land they had been attached to formillennia, since Biblical times - just as Japan or Indiaestablished modern states from ancient civilizations.

I am a Zionist because in building that state, the Jews returnedto history and embraced normalcy, a condition which gave thempower, with all its benefits, responsibilities, and dilemmas.

I am a Zionist because I celebrate Israel's existence. Like anythoughtful patriot, though I might criticize particulargovernment policies I dislike - I do not delegitimize the stateitself.

I am a Zionist because I live in the real world ofnation-states. I see that Zionism is no more or less "racist"than any other nationalism, be it American, Armenian, Canadian,or Czech. All express the eternal human need for some internalcohesion, some tribalism, some solidarity among some historicgrouping of individuals, and not others.

I am a Zionist because we have learned from North Americanmulticulturalism that pride in one's heritage as a Jew, anItalian, a Greek, can provide essential, time-tested anchors inour me-me-me, my-my-my, more-more-more, now-now-now world.

I am a Zionist because in Israel we have learned that a countrywithout a vision is like a person without a soul; a big-tentZionism can inculcate values, fight corruption, reaffirmnational unity, and restore a sense of mission.

I AM a Zionist because in our world of post-modernmulti-dimensional identities, we don't have to be "either-ors",we can be "ands and buts" - a Zionist AND an American patriot; asecular Jew BUT also a Zionist. Just as some people living inIsrael reject Zionism, meaning Jewish nationalism, Jews in theDiaspora can embrace it. To those who ask "How can you be aZionist if you don't make aliya," I reply, "How will anyone makealiya without first being a Zionist?"

I am a Zionist because I am a democrat. The marriage ofdemocracy and nationalism has produced great liberaldemocracies, including Israel, despite its democracy beingtested under severe conditions.

I am a Zionist because I am an idealist. Just as a century ago,the notion of a viable, independent, sovereign Jewish state wasan impossible dream - yet worth fighting for - so, too, today,the notion of a thriving, independent, sovereign Jewish stateliving in true peace with its neighbors appears to be animpossible dream - yet worth seeking.

I am a Zionist because I am a romantic. The story of the Jewsrebuilding their homeland, reclaiming the desert, renewingthemselves, was one of the 20th century's greatest epics, justas the narrative of the Jews maintaining their homeland,reconciling with the Arab world, renewing themselves, andserving as a light to others, a model nation state, could be oneof this century's marvels.

Yes, it sometimes sounds far-fetched. But, as Theodor Herzl, thefather of modern Zionism, said in an idle boast that has becomea cliche: "If you will it, it is no dream."

The writer is Professor of History at McGill University and theauthor of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and theChallenges of Today. This is an updated version of an essay hefirst wrote for Independence Day in 2001.

This week is Memorial Day in Israel and right after it is Independence Day. I have believed for years that the best way to commemorate these days is by turning them into a battle against the loss of perspective.

Memorial Day is the more troubling of the two days. The problem is that Israelis have lost their sense of Jewish perspective to such an extreme extent, and this becomes glaringly evident on Memorial Day. Israelis are incapable of viewing their problems and that of the state within the perspective of Jewish history, in large part because of the efforts of the radically secularist Israeli Left, which dominates civil discourse, the media, academia and politics, and seeks to detach all of Israel from Jewish history and to deny any connection between .Israeli-ness. and Judaism.

All of this is reflected in the whiny defeatism that dominates all thinking about the losses of life by Jews struggling for Israel.s survival. It is blindingly apparent on Memorial Day.

First of all, the atmosphere of Memorial Day in Israel resembles that of Holocaust Remembrance Day . Yom HaShoah, in nearly all things: the same siren, the same closing of cafes and restaurants, the same conversion of the media into official mourners. The timing is also suggestive . Memorial Day is a week after Yom HaShoah. If anything, Memorial Day is the more dramatic of the two days, as there are two sirens sounded on Memorial Day but only one on Yom HaShoah. And this is not because the loss of soldiers is .more recent.. The bulk of soldiers killed in Israel.s wars, far more than half, died in the 1948-9 War of Independence, only three years after the end of the Holocaust.

The two juxtaposed days equate the Holocaust with a tragedy that is two six-hundredths its size. Second, all sense of proportion has been lost. In ALL of Israel.s wars, something like 21,000 soldiers and civilians died, although thanks to the Oslo team the civilians have dominated the death toll this past decade. These numbers are similar to the numbers of Jews murdered every two days at Auschwitz at the height of its .efficiency.. In other words, had Auschwitz operated for only two days longer than it actually did, the losses of Jewish life would have been the same as all of Israel.s military and civilians losses! The soldiers killed in Israel of course died in valor, defending their people and country.

Here we are, 56 years after the Holocaust, and the country is still gripped with the Grand Oslo Delusion, still trying to .negotiate. with the Palestinian Nazis instead of achieving total military victory over them, afraid to follow the lead of the Americans in Fallujah. In 21st-century Israel, the fact that one or two soldiers got killed per week in Lebanon was cause for total unilateral surrender to the Hizbullah and its Syrian masters and for a panic-stricken retreat out of Lebanon to Israel.s .international border.. Two deaths a week of soldiers in Lebanon, deaths that indeed could have been prevented had the country.s leadership the courage to do so, were thought to be sufficient reason for abandoning all rationality and determination, and for putting all of northern Israel under threat of massive bombardment from Hizbullah rockets. On the other front, Palestinians tossing rocks at soldiers in the1980s were sufficient reason adopt .Oslo. in the 1990s, where Israel imported an Islamofascist terrorist army of its sworn enemies into the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

.Oslo. Israel is post-survivalist Israel, defeatist Israel, exhausted Israel. .Oslo. was based on a total loss in the ability to reason rationally, a total loss of historic proportion, a relinquishment of reality for a make-pretend imaginary universe, and a complete loss in the Jewish determination to survive as a nation. First and foremost, it was a complete loss in Jewish self-respect and dignity in Israel. Here we had the spectacle of Israeli leaders meeting, back-slapping and kissing the same Arab fascists who murdered Jewish children and only yesterday denied there had ever been a Holocaust, but at the same time insisting that if there had been one . the Jews deserved it. The Israeli media continues to be the occupied territory of Israel.s extremist Left; the Independence Day issue of Ha.aretz a couple of years back featured a banner Op-Ed by columnist Akiva Eldar entitled .To the Glory of the States of Israel and Palestine., and explaining that Israel will never be truly independent until Palestine has pushed Israel behind its 1949 borders and liberated East Jerusalem. He is not even the most extremist anti-Israel journalist in Israeli journalism.

In Orwellian .Oslo. Israel, defeatism became the greatest form of triumphalism, cowardice became the highest form of courage, and McCarthyism was the greatest expression of democracy, at least in the first few years after the Rabin assassination.

The Israeli military was as blinded by the loss in perspective as the rest of the country. The military leadership has been McClellenist since 1992, and was . if anything . ahead of the rest of the country in saying amen to the Left.s Vision of .Oslo. and backing the national suicidal ambitions of the politicians of the Left. The military brass was louder than the media in demanding a unilateral unconditional surrender of Israel in Lebanon and relinquishing of the Golan to Syria. Military intelligence has never quite gotten around to the point where it discovers that Yassir Arafat is a genocidal terrorist and that there are no differences between the Hamas and the PLO, if there ever were.

Meanwhile, even Ariel Sharon is trying to capitulate his way into tranquility. Just what does he think the PLO-Hamas terrorists will do in the Gaza Strip once Israel has ethnically cleansed it of Jews and abandoned it?